About the Ocean Rights Movement
The Ocean Rights Movement is a global and inclusive movement of individuals, organisations, governments and institutions committed to advancing an ethical relationship between humanity and the Ocean.
To build and scale a Movement for Ocean Rights, Ocean Vision Legal is facilitating The Ocean Rights Collective.
The Ocean Rights Collective is a coalition of organisations and entities coordinating international advocacy for an ethical human-Ocean relationship through the recognition of Ocean Rights and its underpinning principles.
MEMBER INFORMATION COMING SOON.
Ocean Rights is not about imposing a single legal vision. It's about embracing diverse pathways grounded in cultural, legal and ethical traditions that centre care for the Ocean.
While the term Ocean Rights is rooted in Western legal traditions, the aspiration it reflects—the need to live in respectful, reciprocal relationship with the Ocean—is shared across cultures, worldviews and legal systems. Many Indigenous and customary frameworks already embody ethical relationships with the Ocean that go beyond the Western language of rights.
We acknowledge that legal pluralism and the coexistence and interaction of multiple legal systems and approaches is vital to achieving a just and inclusive global Ocean governance framework. Recognising this, the Movement does not seek to impose a singular legal approach, but rather to support and monitor the diverse and context-specific ways in which States, communities and institutions are working to honour the Ocean's intrinsic value and ensure its protection.
We are guided by the understanding that international declarations—such as a Universal Declaration of Ocean Rights (UDOR)—can establish shared ethical and normative foundations, while still allowing States and communities to implement them according to their own legal systems, cultural values and governance models. Our goal is to create the enabling conditions for this shift through dialogue, visibility, and coordination, supporting multiple pathways toward a shared goal: a thriving Ocean and a just, respectful human-Ocean relationship.We are finalising our process for requests to join the Ocean Rights Collective. In the meantime, you can join the Ocean Rights Movement and our newsletter below.